The Magic Knight is a one-act musical burlesque with music by Victor Herbert

Victor Herbert

Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...

 and a libretto by Edgar Smith. The piece parodies the Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

 opera Lohengrin

Lohengrin (opera)

Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...

.

The original production opened at Weber's Music Hall in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 on December 25, 1906, and ran for 102 performances until March 23, 1907. It was played as a show within a show with Herbert and Smith's two-act operetta, Dream City.
Modern performances of the piece, especially with orchestra, are rare. It was performed without orchestra, within Dream City, during the 2006 Victor Herbert Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...

.

Synopsis

Elsa is accused of murdering her brother, Godfrey, who has mysteriously disappeared, but Elsa is guilty of nothing more than an excessive fondness for singing cadenzas. Frederick, who was to have married Elsa, marries the enchantress Ortrud, instead. Ortrud has turned Godfrey into a swan. Elsa calls upon a magic knight to save her by engaging in combat with Frederick. A first call to fairyland to summon the knight is unsuccessful, but after a second call, the knight arrives on the back of the enchanted swan. The knight soon defeats the cowardly Frederick and turns the swan back into Godfrey. He asks Elsa to marry him, but when she asks his name, the enchantment is broken. He must return to fairyland, leaving Elsa alone and grief stricken, but still singing cadenzas.

Musical numbers

• Prelude
• Our King Is Here – Ensemble
• The Court Is Called to Order – The King
• Elsa Is Accused – Frederick and Tunite
• I'm Such a Modest Maiden – Elsa
• The Human Canary – Elsa
• The Magic Knight Is Summoned – The Herald
• Oh, Look Who's Here – Elsa and Chorus
• Ta Ta, My Dainty Little Darling – Lohengrin
• The Cake-Walk Duel – Lohengrin and Frederick
• The Confession – Ortrud

Roles and original cast

• The King (A base monarch) – Frank Belcher
• Elsa (A typical grand operatic maiden in the usual distressing predicament) – Lillian Blauvelt
  Lillian Blauvelt
  Lillian Blauvelt was a popular opera singer in New York City, USA in the first decade of the 20th century. Her voice was a lyric soprano with...
  
  
• Ortrud (Her contralto
  Contralto
  Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
  
   aunt, given to dabbling in the art of magic) – Cora Tracey
• Lohengrin (A professional rescuer of distressed maidens) – Maurice Farkoa
• The Herald (A mediaeval news announcer) – W. L. Romaine
• The Swan, Godfrey (An item in a foul conspiracy) – Lores Grimm
• Frederick (Her hen-pecked uncle) – Otis Harlan
  Otis Harlan
  -Biography:Harlan was born in Zanesville, Ohio in 1865. He married Nellie Harvey and had a daughter named Marion. Harlan was the uncle of silent actor Kenneth Harlan.-Career:...
  
  

Three knights:

• Lastnite – Billie Norton
• Tunite – Lois Ewell
  Lois Ewell
  Lois Ewell , was an American opera singer and Broadway performer. In 1908 she appeared in "The Merry Widow" at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City. In 1913 she appeared in the Century Opera Company's production of Aida in Manhattan....
  
  
• Tumaronite –Lillian deLee

Recording

A recording of The Magic Knight was released with Dream City in 2006 by the Comic Opera Guild.

External links

• Review of The Magic Knight
• Johnson, Colin. Links to MIDI files and other information about The Magic Knight